This modern life

Trilled to be back

Several factors may explain why, during the past 30 years, whistling nearly went the way of the dodo. Statisticians say that people feel more rushed and miserable than in the Seventies (when there were such things as three-day weeks to relax and cheer them). In the Eighties, Walkmans made it popular to race around listening to music instead of whistling it. Wolf-whistling became socially unacceptable, so those who had done it may have concluded there was little point practising notes between 'birds' rushing by. And the anti-ageing industry arrived, giving dire warnings that anything more than the occasional pursing of lips would result in people's mouths resembling draw-string purses by the time they were 37.

Yet a whistling forum on Yahoo! has recently brought together a vibrant 'whistling community', Jamaica's Hylton 'The Whistler' Brown has been posting his whistling reggae on YouTube in earnest, an International Whistlers Convention is being held (in North Carolina) next month, and - leaving court with money negotiations seemingly going in his favour - even Macca is said to be whistling again.

Like a mad scramble for vintage knickers at Portobello market, could a resurgence be underway? Can ex-whistlers recover their skills after so long, like jumping back on a bike? And can a new generation make the post-miserablist and eco-friendly lifestyle choice of regularly making oscillations in their cranial resonant chambers?

With smoking being banned practically everywhere, so many people's need to do something with their lips could be redirected into whistling - free, anywhere, anytime, at the drop of a hat.